New Hampshire: Usa Today

You may have seen the new American Religious Identification Survey, which shows that Americans have become slightly less “religious” over the past ten years. The survey’s most important finding was that 15% of Americans claim they have no religion – a small number, but almost double the 8% of 1990’s survey. The study contains several other interesting findings about the demographics of America’s religiosity, but the key takeaway is that an increasingly large minority of Americans are rejecting all forms of organized religion.

Why are Americans turning away from organized religion? Two reasons occur to me. One, the social climate of today makes it more acceptable for someone to be an atheist or a member of an “alternative” religion like Wicca than it was two or three decades ago, so such people are more likely to “come out,” as it were.